


Later Losers

by lostwishes



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Party, Shikamaru just really loves his girlfriend, someone wanted this on tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:55:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23125876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostwishes/pseuds/lostwishes
Summary: Normally Shikamaru kind of liked these parties, but tonight, tonight he just really misses his girlfriend.
Relationships: Hyuuga Neji/Tenten - background, Nara Shikamaru/Temari, Sai/Yamanaka Ino - background
Comments: 12
Kudos: 118





	Later Losers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [deepestbluest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deepestbluest/gifts).



It wasn't like the party was bad or anything; Sasuke wasn't drunk enough to go along with any of Naruto’s antics and Lee was still on his way over, so the party’s energy wasn't sky-high and dangerous yet. Usually he would be having a decent amount of fun at a party like this, but tonight everything just seemed to drag on. 

He misses her, it was silly how much he misses her. 

Shikamaru rifled through his pockets as he sat in the middle of Naruto and Sasuke's hideous orange couch, if he was going to survive the night then he was going to need a smoke. A hand shot out from beside him, “No, you aren’t doing that in here, Itachi’s coming to visit tomorrow and I’m not about to go through that lecture if he smells your cigarette smoke in here,” Sasuke stopped him. 

“Then why are you hosting a party, you know he’ll notice something happened here?”

“Trust me, I did not want this,” Sasuke said, raising his voice and turning to glare at Naruto, who had taken it upon himself to start a drunken brawl with Kiba. “OH, DON’T EVEN START THIS WITH ME AGAIN! IF YOU DON’T RELAX THEN YOU’RE GOING TO TURN INTO A DUMB POLE LIKE THE ONE STUCK U-” Kiba stopped him before he could finish his sentence by shoving his hand into Naruto’s mouth. “EW, dude don’t lick my hand!” “WHY DOES YOUR HAND TASTE LIKE DOG?” “WHY DO YOU KNOW WHAT DOG TASTES LIKE?” “WHY DOES YOUR HAND TASTE LIKE DOG?!” “AKAMAR-” 

“Stop yelling before we get another noise complaint!” He silently praised Sasuke for that comment, if he didn’t stop it then they really would have gotten a complaint and whenever they did it always somehow became Shikamaru’s job to make the neighbours reconsider the complaint. 

Maybe while Sasuke was distracted Shikamaru could sneak just one cigarette, he thought reaching into his pocket, “I see that. I thought I told you not to smoke in the apartment.” 

“Just tell him it was me, he thinks the world of you, he’ll know it's true.” He said as he pulled one out anyways. “Then you can’t complain when you get a phone call from Itachi in the morning, asking if I’m telling the truth!” 

“Whatever” and with that he lit the cigarette and brought it to his lips, releasing a small puff of smoke.

He checked his phone to see if he had any new messages from Temari, but the only notifications he had were from Kurenai reminding him to visit soon and a phone update.

He missed her, why couldn’t she be here.

It didn’t help when he saw Ino and Sai basically on top of one another with how close they were. Not that he didn’t love Ino, she was one of his closest and oldest friends, and he had seen what she went through trailing after Sasuke. Loving someone who would never love her back was hard for him to watch. He was happy she finally found love and all but seeing her able to be so close to Sai when his girlfriend wasn’t even in the same city, was making him distraught. Sai’s lack of emotional capacity and gratitude for his situation just made it so much worse. 

“Shikamaru?”

“Hmmm?” He raised his eyes to look at Choji who was staring at him with worry.

“Are you doing okay? You’re zoned out more than usual and you haven’t had anything to eat or drink all night. Are you hungry or something?”

Before he could say anything the door burst open and Lee bounded through with Neji and Tenten trailing behind him. 

“I APOLOGIZE FOR OUR TARDINESS!! I INSISTED ON PUSHING OUR STUDIES TO IMPROVE OUR LEARNING AND WE MISSED THE BUS!” Lee always did know how to make an entrance. “I offered to drive.” “My dear friend Neji, we as the youth of this society must support the working class.” 

If Neji’s look of exasperation and all of them being soaked to the bone was any indicator he’d guess that they didn’t even take the bus in the end. “Lee, you made us walk.” “Wrong, Tenten, we ran. Besides now Neji can take you on a nice date with the gas money we saved.”

Neji and Tenten’s faces flushed pink and shuffled into separate corners of the room. They should just admit they like each other and get it over with, Shikamaru thought as he watched them both attempt to make discreet glances at each other. 

Within a few minutes the party returned to its former glory with the additional energy of Lee as he proposed a drinking game with Naruto and Kiba, something that was bound to end in disaster and Shikamaru being forced to find a solution.

He missed Temari, why couldn’t she be here to help him shoulder the pain of everyone’s idiocy. He wanted to be with her, it pained him to think of how he couldn’t go see her.

But then again why couldn’t he, he had a car, and he hadn’t had anything to drink, something Chouji had even made sure to mention earlier. There was no reason that Shikamaru couldn’t drive to go see her, he even had a full tank of gas to get him there.

Shikamaru stood up abruptly and walked to the door.

“I miss my girlfriend,” and with that the door slammed shut.

“Wait! Doesn’t Temari go to Suna? That’s like an hour away from here, what does Shikamaru think he’s doing?” He heard Ino exclaim as he left.

“It’s actually closer to an hour and a half,” was the last thing he heard from the apartment as Choji emphasized the absolute idiocy of his genius best friend.

Once he reached his car he unlocked it and sent off a quick to Temari to tell her he was on his way.

**To: Temari**

**i’m coming over**

**From: Temari**

**nice to know you’re drunk, go to bed**

He threw his head back and laughed at her assumption that the only reason he'd say that was if he was drunk. However, it was also slightly saddening to know their distance was so great that that could be the only reason he would say that, only making his drive that much more important.

The drive was peaceful with little noise, the darkness of night surrounding him as he made his way down the highway. The only other car we saw along his trip was a little yellow one that turned off the highway into another town halfway through his journey. 

Finally he saw the edge of Suna and turned into the city, making it there in record time, likely due to the fact he went over the speed limit. However, later when Temari asks him about it, he'll admit no such thing. 

It was late when he finally made it to her apartment, his phone saying it was already 2:24 AM. He knocked on her door, wringing his hands and realizing the absolute absurdity of what he had actually done for the first time that night.

"IT'S LATE, GO AWAY!"

At that Shikamaru scoffed, he comes this far for this. He knocks again with more purpose.

“Kankurou, if that’s you, I don’t want to hear anymore about the silly puppets your professor is willing to sell you! Or about how h-” and with that the door swung open to reveal Temari, his beautiful girlfriend. 

Her face softened when she saw it was him.

A moment passed and he let out a soft, “Hi.”

“Oh Shikamaru, I thought you were joking when you said you were coming over,” she said, developing a small grin.

Without another word he leant down to fall into her chest, wrapping his arms around her and sighing.

That night he fell asleep embracing his girlfriend as she made remarks on his lack of planning and how she thought he was supposed to be a lazy homebody. Really though what did she expect from him, yeah he was lazy but he was homesick, he needed her.

The next morning when Itachi inevitably phoned to reprimand him for smoking inside, Temari stole his phone away from him to tell him to leave them alone and bother his brother instead. 

_Yeah, he really missed his girlfriend._

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first fic ever so sorry for the quality, i'll probably fix it up later though. this is for asotin on tumblr, i liked the idea too


End file.
